Month: February 2012

Today is a fire pepper spree for some reason. Digging deeper into the void we have news of a new king in town, the Trinidad Moruga Scorpion pepper has been uncovered to reach Scoville units exceeding 2 million. The previous king is no slouch breaching the 1 million barrier but this new breed seems to pack a punch unlike any other with a problematic side effect of actually being tasty on top of painfully hot.

Getting your own peppers figured out wont be that easy as the AP notes:

During harvesting, senior research specialist Danise Coon said she and the two students who were picking the peppers went through about four pairs of latex gloves.

“The capsaicin kept penetrating the latex and soaking into the skin on our hands. That has never happened to me before,” she said.

The seeds are already in high demand which means securing your own plants might be a little difficult and time to reach the market integrated into products will be limited as well. In the meantime if you’re hooked into the chili market you might be able to score your own brain strain peppers as many have on Youtube already using google and keywords like brain strain or 7 pot to get a match.

The end of 2012 should be an interesting time for chili products if you’re a fan, if not then just watch out because you might find friends slipping fire sauce into your dish.

We’ve reviewed the infamous Naga Jolokia from Melinda’s and we’ve been tempted by the ThinkGeek atomic fireballs fueled by Naga peppers. Today though the team at Bamfas stumbles upon our next possible adventure. Naga based Vodka by Master of Malt, while not cranking out 100,000 Scoville units this is pretty much a promise that it’ll decimate your taste buds and hang out for the after party.

Given personal experience with the Naga it’s easy to say that it burns through and through, if it touches your skin, enjoy the irritation and if it gets anywhere else one can only wish you luck on survival.

They recently got the malt on TV to sample and the hosts were… well they won’t forget that Vodka anytime soon. You can order your own bottle here, in the meantime we’ll work on trying to secure at least a sample of it for a possible Naga Showdown.

As amazing as the extended superbowl trailer was, it was tough to imagine there was much more awesomeness left to tease us with. The new trailer will remove any doubt. Simply put, the Avengers is looks incredible. Don’t believe me? Take a peek for yourself below.

Gearbox and 2K have been quick to eliminate any speculation about online support and protections for Borderlands 2, today they’ve announced that Steamworks will handle achievements, DLC, updates and matchmaking services with Steam Cloud picking up the tab for game progress data as well.

This acts as a shift from the in-house system used in the original title on the PC, with Steamworks they’re able to harness an entire user base with relative ease especially when handling 4 player match-ups. The only frustration might come from using online activation for the game, generally Steam requires online decryption of the files before allowing someone to play the game offline which means there will be a one-time validation requirement attached.

Borderlands 2 is set to arrive this September, hopefully we’ll have some deeper looks at the game between now and the release.

Have a smaller case or HTPC system that needs some improved cooling? Noctua has a new solution to get it done with their latest unit. The NH-L12 runs dual fans for extreme cooling, the NF-F12 and NF-B9 PWM fans run in dual configuration for maximum airflow or in single fan mode to save space at 66mm of total height on the cooler.

Platforms:

Intel LGA2011, LGA1366, LGA1156, LGA1155, LGA775

AMD AM2, AM2+, AM3, AM3+, FM1

It’s not surprising to see this move, many are moving to HTPC units or small factor enclosures to maximize their home entertainment theater experience. With the rise of fusion chips from AMD and the Sandy Bridge series it means high performance doesn’t a dedicated GPU for rendering and other expansion cards. Noctua CEO summarizes this situation well when talking about the cooler.

“The industry trend towards Small Form Factor and Home Theatre PCs is well-established, but there’s still a lack of suitable high-quality quiet CPU coolers”, explains Mag. Roland Mossig, Noctua CEO. “Building a powerful PC always requires a capable CPU, which in return demands a competent cooling solution. But who wants his HTPC to sound like a jet engine? This is precisely where the NH-L12 steps in.”

The PWM support in the NF-F12 and NF-B9 keep the noise under control but also come with low-noise adapters to bring it down to 1200/1300rpm to force it to the bottom end of the spectrum. The system also comes with NT-H1 compound and SecuFirm mounting clips to hold it tight. Coming in at $59.90 it’s a solid deal coming from the company that makes the infamous NH-D14 cooler.

ComiXology is back with another Marvel Monday blitz and a sneak peek at the Wednesday releases coming to your Computer,iPhone,Android or anything else you can access their catalog with. This time it’s 99 cent issues for Spider-Man in all his glory, check out our link to the sale and get in while you can on his universe.

There’s a new blitz coming just for this leap year from the ComiXology folks, we have the current list so give it a look and apologize to your wallet and bank account in advance before the arrivals hit.

Yesterday HTC unleashed the One series to the world, a next-gen phone for the company delivering a focus on user experience as they maximize their smartphone in everyday use. The series will come in 3 variants for users to pick from, each of them addressing the needs of their targeted demographics, there’s a list below but we’ll talk about the upcoming features to these ICS powered phones carrying HTC Sense 4.

Camera changes:

ImageSense is a new platform delivering improved sensors, lenses and software to their line of phones. This feels like a natural progression after using so many of their phones over the years since the Droid Eris. The development doesn’t stop there, HTC also includes a new ImageChip to help deliver fast captures, high quality under hard conditions and quick review options for users.

As seen in 2011, HTC has increased its effort into producing higher quality sound output from their devices. Beats by Dr. Dre Audio is now standard across the line allowing for more authentic sound reproduction in any of your apps. Those on Cyanogenmod might already notice this flaw in regular audio playback when using the DSP tools to fix their frequency balances on the phone. Sync manager allows for traditional management to continue on and it also includes a Music Hub to match with favorite services and applications.

Let the new phone envy begin, Dual core is so last year.(literally) Everyone who buys a phone and immediately wants a new one, knows that quad core is the emerging hotness. With the introduction of the Tegra 3 powered Asus Eee Pad Transformer Prime TF201 debuting first, quad core now seems to be the new standard.

While the GSIII wont be running a Tegra chip with its secret 5th core, it will have a 4core version of the Samsung Exynos processor running at 1.5Ghz. It seems to be a newer more powerful version that runs in current SII’s. So if you like the SII but wish it would load angry birds faster, you’re in luck.

Another interesting bit is that it will feature a ceramic case. Now before you complain about how you have no coffee mugs left because they are shatter magnets, its not that kind of ceramic. Think track day ceramic brakes rather than pottery barn #1 dad mug.

Thoth-Amon informs Baron Dion of Ascalante’s plan to betray the Baron once his plan has flourished. As the wizards cast a spell which makes the Baron see in the past, during the time he served under King Ctesphon and controlled an army of demonic beings which he ruled the temple of Stygia unopposed with. As long as he had the The Serpent Ring of Set he had no equal, until one day a thief stole his ring from his hand while he was sleeping. From there he tells the story of when he ran into Ascalante on the battlefield which resulted in all of Amon’s men killed leaving him behind. After reliving his identity to Ascalante and swearing to serve him, Thorh- Amon promises the Baron that if he protects him from Ascalante until the day he recovers his ring. Whispers in his dreams have mentioned to him the ring is close and soon he will regain his power once more.

Baron Dion makes a reference to the ring Thoth-Amon had shown him in a vision and that he possess one of its liken which was given to him by a shemitish thief who claimed to have stolen it while in the south, the Baron Dion opens his jewelry chest and shows Thoth-Amon the ring he spoke of. To the wizards surprise it was his ring the Baron Dion had possed and in a violent rage Thoth-Amon calls the fat baron a thief thrusts his sword in too his chest. With his ring and power returned Thoth-Amon makes his way into the darkness.

As Conan sleeps in his bed, a mysterious fog approaches, amongst the fog a voice calls out to him which awakens him. Realizing that this no dream he grabs his sword and prepares for the worst, as the fog continues to spread a bright light all begins to consume Conan and teleports him to an abandoned castle surrounded by fog. Conan cautiously enters the door way of what seems like throne room, inside a hooded man is sitting and waiting for him, as Conan gets closer the hooded man asks him if he knew who he was… implying the Cimmerian should for he is Epemitreus The Saga…——————————————————————————————————————————————————–

Final thoughts: The Phoenix On The Sword Part 2 continues the story from part 1, we also get a glimpse of Thoth-Amon’s past. One thing about 4 issue comics is the stories sometimes feel rushed leaving a lot of holes in the plot and you wanting more. I don’t expect King Conan: The Phoenix on the Sword to have that problem as everything is straight forward like most of the Conan comics. With that said, The Phoenix On The Sword Part 2 is decent read and it should hold you over until Part 3.

Pokemon fans rejoice! Today we have a flurry of news that started this weekend when Japan announced Pokemon White and Black 2 for the DS, joining that announcement is PokePark 2: Wonders Beyond for the Wii going to retail today.

In PokePark 2: Wonders Beyond players will embark on a new adventure with Pikachu and Oshawott, Snivy and Tepig who work together to discover the secrets of Wish Park and the missing Pokemon. With dynamic character changes it’ll take an understanding of everyone’s strengths to push forward and tackle the puzzles and challenges along the path. Pikachu will encounter new Pokemon and old friends in a vast selection of new areas and environments and have the chance to engage them in hide-and seek and battles as well.

Pokemon Black and White 2 is the successor group to the recently released games on the DS already, it’s compatible and coming to North America this Fall leaving a short window from the Japanese release this summer. Nintendo has little to say on the game so far but you can check out the Japanese site for more details and wing your way around with Google Chrome to translate.